RALEIGH, NC – Boston’s struggle against long odds continued with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Bruins, who have never come back from a 3-1 series deficit in their long history, will attempt to erase the blemish from their record when they host the Hurricanes on Thursday night.
The win came thanks to a quick first period two-goal blitz and a solid game from goaltender Tim Thomas to even the series. Two players acquired at the trading deadline, former Hurricanes skater Mark Recchi and Steve Montador scored goals for Boston and gave the Bruins a lead they would never relinquish just over five minutes into the game.
For Carolina the contest was one of ebbs and flows. The team fell behind early but Mark Cullen pulled the Hurricanes within a goal early in the second period. Carolina put on a lot of pressure on the Bruins in an attempt to even the score, but despite outshooting Boston in all three periods Carolina never did more than threaten the Bruins.
The scenario repeated itself later in the game after Boston answered Cullen’s goal with two goals to seemingly put the contest away. This time it would be Sergei Samsonov who lit the lamp for the Hurricanes early in the third and successive penalties by Montador and Dennis Wideman appeared to open the door for a comeback. Thomas was equal to the task and made several strong saves during the power play to keep Carolina from creeping closer. At this point the Bruins were basically in a defensive shell. This was shown in the statistics which showed Carolina getting more shots than Boston did by a 14-4 margin in the final frame.
After an off-day of controversy which saw the NHL take action by rescinding an automatic suspension to Carolina’s Scott Walker and not take action on a Jussi Jokinen slash to Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara, it appeared the league might also take away the game’s opening goal.
The scenario for a lengthy video review was set up by a rush up the right wing wall by Boston’s Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron moved the puck into the Carolina zone and skillfully slid a cross-crease pass to Recchi who tapped the puck into an open goal. Or so it seemed. As the puck went into the net Carolina’s Anton Babchuk crashed into the goal and knocked it off its moorings. After the goal the NHL Situation Room in Toronto reviewed the play, not because the net was knocked off (Rule 63.6 states since a Carolina player knocked the goal off the moorings the goal would have counted) but because there was a train of thought Recchi had kicked the puck into the goal.
Boston doubled the lead when Montador ripped home a slap-shot from the top of the circle to the right of Carolina’s Cam Ward. Boston center David Krejci started the sequence of events which led to the goal by sending a touch pass to Montador while he was being hit by a Hurricanes player.
The club’s other two goals were set up by excellent passes. Marc Savard’s goal came after Milan Lucic claimed the puck on the right wing boards and walked around several members of the Hurricanes before dishing the puck off to his linemate. Bergeron finalized the scoring when he fired the puck from the left boards across the crease to a waiting Chuck Kobasew.
Carolina’s goals were close-in affairs. Cullen’s goal came after a failed poke-check by Thomas as did Samsonov’s.
With Boston’s win the teams will travel to Massachusetts to get ready for a game scheduled to take place Thursday, May 14 at 8 pm. Carolina may have won the first round of this game already as Boston’s Marc Savard left the ice in Game 6 with an apparent leg injury.
Notes
Boston’s Aaron Ward played in Game 6after taking a punch from Walker in the waning moments in Game 5. Based on the reaction from the two clubs the incident may as well have taken place on alternative realities. What no one denies is Ward was involved with an altercation with Cullen and then Walker became involved. After Cullen moved away Ward and Walker both pawed at each other before Walker threw a straight right hand punch to Ward’s face. Because Walker was assessed an instigator penalty with less than five minutes in the game he was given a one-game suspension, which the league rescinded.
“I accept the League’s decision,” Walker said in a statement. “Based on what was said on the ice as I was dropping my gloves, it was my understanding that I was engaged in an altercation.” “We are satisfied with the League’s ruling,” Rutherford said in a press release. “After our team received several punches throughout the series leading up to Game 5, it was a matter of time before one was going to be thrown back.”
Meanwhile the Boston organization totally disagreed with the reversal and said so in their statement after the league’s decision.
“We respectfully disagree with the NHL’s ruling to rescind the automatic suspension to Scott Walker,” said Boston GM Peter Chiarelli. “But we will abide by the League’s ruling.”
Recchi’s goal was the 50th of his NHL career, it was scored in his 150th NHL playoff game…Carolina went seven games in their opening series against New Jersey, the last time Boston went through a Game 7 was last year when they lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the first round…Boston has won all three meetings in the playoffs between these two franchises prior to this series. The series between the clubs in 1990 went the full distance as has this one…Ryan Bayda rejoined the lineup for Carolina after missing the previous two games, he had been out with an illness…Boston has now played in 21 series in which they were down three games to one. This is only the second such series in which they have advanced to a seventh game. They have never won a series after failing into such a hole. Stretching the stats further after Boston’s win in Game 5 shows the club is 2-16 in series in which they fall behind by a 2-3 deficit.
Contact tom.schettino@prohockeynews.com
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